


what waits outside the dark

by spideywhiteys



Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [67]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Gen, Introspection, Juugo POV, No Explicit Violence, child juugo, talk of death and dying, technically suicidal thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:27:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29934081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spideywhiteys/pseuds/spideywhiteys
Summary: Juugo is not yet thirteen, and if he has his way he will never live to see fourteen.
Relationships: Namikaze Minato & Juugo
Series: 365 Days of Naruto AUs [67]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2086938
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	what waits outside the dark

**Author's Note:**

> Day 67: Hunger Games AU / Juugo + Minato

His name is Minato.

His name is Minato and he looks like the sun on a cloudless day. He’s older than Juugo, a fully grown adult whereas Juugo has yet to reach fourteen. There’s a kindness in the man that deserves more than this — he deserves more than most of the contestants locked in this arena.

Juugo is the only child this time around. The next youngest is nineteen and surly, from District Four. He remembers the glint in her eyes and the way she easily handled a knife in the beginning. If they run into her, they will get no mercy.

Maybe it’s  _ because _ he’s young — no, actually, he’s pretty sure that’s exactly why. Minato has a caring disposition after all, a deep-rooted hatred for this  _ system  _ that burns with the same intensity as the sun and every star in the sky.

_ I have a son a little younger than you, _ Minato had said.

Juugo doesn’t have that. A family. A father or mother or brother. He’s an orphan in his district, uncared for and scrounging in the dirt for survival. This arena isn’t much different in that sense — though the desperate intent to kill coming from all sides is a bit much to get used to. He knows that between the two of them, ages aside, it’s Minato who deserves to win; to live. He has a family to go home to, people who will miss him if he dies — people who miss him right now. If they know him, and they must, far more than Juugo does in the few days they’ve been acquainted, they’re probably resigned to the fact that Minato will give his life for Juugo in the end.

Because Juugo might not know Minato that well yet, but he knows  _ this much _ about the man. Minato never says it out loud, but his crystalline eyes do enough talking. He really is too kind. Juugo has never met someone like him before, not in his short thirteen years. 

He doubts he ever will again.

(Not if he has anything to say about it.)

* * *

Juugo is thirteen years old when he decides to die for a man he met six days ago, for a man he’s spent four of those days with in an arena made to kill them for the pleasure of others. He thinks it’ll be the greatest thing he’ll ever accomplish.

* * *

Minato knows how to wield a knife.

He adjusts Juugo’s wrists, not worried at all about handing a potential killer a weapon and teaching him how to use it. Not that Juugo would kill Minato. 

They hide away from the river, hidden like squirrels at the base of large trees with enough gnarls and wood knots to help them climb to high branches. There’s no safety on land, no safety in the water and no safety in the air, either. Whether it be poisonous fish, wild dogs, other contestants or mutated bees, they only live to serve the whims of the wealthy.

Juugo thinks their alliance has endeared them to a section of the watching public, because they receive gifts often enough. Fresh water. Bug repellent. A roll of bandages. The knife in Juugo’s hands. 

He wonders where Minato learned how to use it, because the older man is careful and familiar with the blade and it’s impossibly obvious. He’s not even attempting to hide it, not that he should in this situation. Juugo thinks Minato could have killed a hundred men and it wouldn’t matter — the blonde is still the only person who’s ever shown Juugo kindness that lasted more than a few minutes. That’s enough for him.

“You’re small,” Minato tells Juugo. “That’s an advantage and a fault. You need to be careful and rely more on speed and stealth. Aim for fatal points from the start, or go for tendons.”

He shows Juugo the veins in his neck, draws a finger across the one on his thigh, taps the back of his ankles, where a tendon flexes.  _ Punch the throat, _ he informs,  _ fingers in eyes. _

Juugo learns how to kill from a man with the sky for eyes and only feels grateful. He doesn’t want to be dead weight. There’s a handful of people left and he’s not willing to part from the world just yet — he has to make it to the end, has to make sure Minato makes it to the end. The man has a family waiting for him. 

“Just a little longer,” Minato promises, and Juugo isn’t sure what it is that he’s promising. 

“Okay.” He replies every time, curling into Minato’s side when the night falls and the temperature drops and his fear comes to a head — because he’s still thirteen and it’s dark, and the world is scary, far scarier than any nightmare he could conjure.

Juugo is thirteen when he decides to die.

He hopes he won’t be scared when the time comes.


End file.
